Even
though the Bush administration is now in full spin-and-smear mode, the
truly striking thing about their languorous response to Katrina is how
little they disguised their lack of concern for residents of the Gulf
Coast. That picture of Bush playing the guitar in San Diego during the
magic 72-hour window of opportunity for saving lives just doesn’t compute
as a lapse in judgment. This administration is nothing if not media- and
image-conscious. They do not lose control of the visual.

Their slow-walking
of aid to Louisiana, the continuing focus on law and order over search and
rescue, the alternately stern -- “zero tolerance for lawlessness” -- and
forgetful attitudes toward people who were literally dying for want of
help: all this was right out in the open. As far as I’m concerned, it
reads like a warning.

What it says is we
are entering a new phase in this rightwing takeover, a phase that is
marked, appropriately enough, by a new, glitzier approach to the
anniversary of 9/11. While the Bushitters have been shameless in their
exploitation of this catastrophe from the first, this year they finally
busted out with a real celebration in the form of the so-called
Freedom March, culminating in a performance by Clint Black, who sang
his pro-war anthem, “I
raq and roll.” The march’s stated purpose is to support our troops,
but the obvious intention is to reinforce the false, discredited, and
disavowed link between 9/11 and the war in Iraq.

What we really need
is a Truth March. Wouldn’t it be great if we saw a march designed to show
the truth about what’s been going on?

We could step off
with little children tossing flower petals and chocolate kisses to our
soldiers to commemorate how the Iraqis, those ingrates, were supposed to
greet us. The first ranks of soldiers should be those who’ve lost limbs
and faculties in the war, those who’ve been exposed to depleted uranium,
the long-term, uncounted casualties.

We should have a
float that continuously loops George W. Bush admitting that there is no
connection between 9/11 and Iraq.

Here’s a float with
a portable jail. Who’s inside? Judy Miller, the New York Times
reporter who relied on
Iranian double-agent Ahmed Chalabi as her
source for all those front-page stories about weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq. And outside the jail, trying unsuccessfully to
hide behind Judy,
stands none other than master-leaker Karl Rove! Speaking of leaks, if I
had my way, the next float would contain speakers blasting the shrieks of
young boys being raped at Abu Ghraib prison while video cameras were
rolling. Seymour Hersh says, “The worst about all of them is the
soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They [the
Bush administration] are in total terror it’s going to come out.”

What could follow
that? How about a float celebrating the Iraqi elections? That’s what makes
it all worthwhile, right? The screens on this float show proud Iraqis
holding up purple fingers to celebrate their very first democratic
elections, fading into
Safia Taleb al-Suhail, Iraqi ambassador to Egypt, sitting next to
Laura Bush during the 2005 State of the Union address, then standing and
holding up her own index finger, purple from the ink used to vote in the
elections. That image, in turn, fades into Suhail a few weeks ago saying,
“When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights
and the position of women. But look what has happened -- we have lost all
the gains we made over the last 30 years. It’s a big disappointment.”

Walking the parade
route, in addition to the troops, would be
CACI civilian intelligence contractors, who broke the chain of command
and managed torture without facing any penalties whatsoever. No hoods for
them: let’s see their corporate middle-manager faces. The crowd should
feel free to throw rotten eggs and tomatoes. And right behind them let’s
see a
crowd of psychologists from the biscuit teams at Guantanamo and Abu
Ghraib.

They could be
carrying a banner that says “Making the world just a little bit safer
through torture.” (Recent studies that suggest that exposing them to
crowds might be most effective in helping them overcome their overwhelming
fear of authority and renouncing their criminal complicity.)

But the real stars
in this parade would be the new weapons. This gang has concentrated on
researching, creating, and stockpiling the most terrifying arsenal in the
history of the human race. We could show a few of those lovable little
bunker-buster mini-nukes that Junior is so hot for. The beautiful
thing about these babies, also known as
suitcase nukes, is that they’re portable, which makes them prime
targets for entrepreneurial terrorists who want to move up in the world.

Closer to home, we
have the new
Taser electrical weapons. The Taser is billed as a non-lethal weapon,
a safer way for police to exercise control, and yet the company has been
sued 14 times since 2003 by police officers who have suffered terrible
injuries in training. Jacob Herring, the police chief in Hallsville,
Missouri, claims he suffered at least two strokes, loss and impairment of
his vision and hearing, neurological damage, a head injury, and cardiac
damage after he was shocked by a Taser.

And that’s the baby
Taser. Here comes daddy: an electric shock weapon that can fire across a
city street or a sports stadium. The design, which is being developed for
the government by a Texas company called Lynntech, is for a projectile
that can be lobbed from a grenade launcher or shotgun. The projectile
sticks to its target and delivers an 80,000-volt shock for seven seconds.
Seven seconds seems like an awfully long time to take that much juice.
Nevertheless it comes with a remote that can trigger further shocks if you
don’t lie down after the first one.

But best of all, and
most important for any of you who still have silly ideas about resisting
these new masters of the world, are plans for
militarizing
space. With the use of sophisticated satellite surveillance technology
and laser guns mounted in space, this administration hopes to be able to
hold the entire world hostage. The magnification of the satellite images
is so high that there will be no place on the planet to hide from their
targeting systems.

Our enemies in the
White House think big. And they have long-term plans. If you don’t think
so, consider the fact that the military-industrial complex has now
extended its reach into
birthday party videos for three-year-olds at Chuck E. Cheese. In the
middle of a 15-minute movie full of animated creatures, “the MTV segment
shifted to a promotional piece by the Department of Defense! The promo
showed happy, smiling soldiers in Iraq handing out toys and candies to
delighted children. This was followed by a series of scenes showing war
planes, tanks and more happy soldiers. This production lasted for five
minutes . . .” These people see no end to their power and no end to war.

It’s time for us to
take a page from Mr. Bush’s book and adopt a policy of zero tolerance,
with the goal of driving these criminals from office before the next
anniversary of September 11.

Patricia Goldsmith is a member of Long
Island Media Watch, a grassroots free media and democracy watchdog group.
She can be reached at:
plgoldsmith@optonline.net.